Thursday, November 24, 2011

Was Sarah Palin ever at the Mat-Su hospital on April 18, 2008? Maybe not–at least not officially

Well, I feel like an idiot. After writing most of a column on
what must have happened before and after Sarah Palin arrived at the Mat-Su
Regional Medical Center the day she claimed to give birth there, the likely
truth hit me in the face like a wet mackerel.

I’m surely not the first person to hypothesize this – it’s too
obvious – but what if Sarah Palin never stepped foot in the Mat-Su hospital
on April 18? What do we know for certain? We (seemingly) know that Palin's
parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, were there on April 18, because they appeared
in a KTUU-TV newscast that day holding Trig. We can dissect that shortly.

But first, something that has always bothered me is the lack of
photographic evidence that Sarah Palin was at the hospital. If she in fact had
a room, why wouldn’t she get into bed, muss up her hair, and get her picture
taken holding Trig?

Correct me if I am wrong, but there are no reliable eyewitness
accounts of Sarah Palin being in the hospital at all – right? Nor, as far
as I recall, is there any other kind of evidence, documentary or
otherwise, that she ever stepped foot in the hospital that weekend.Another possibility is that Palin was at the hospital, but never actually got a room. In that case, the point would be that she was never officially at the hospital. More on that possibility later.

Now, back to that KTUU-TV newscast. Where was Bill McAllister
working on April 18? – KTUU, of course! My last post is about how McAllister
was probably a central figure in the hoax. And I pointed out how he, with the
help of KTUU cameraman Dan Carpenter, probably took the Gusty-interview photos
of Palin looking more pregnant than ever before, which were later used to quash
rumors of the faked pregnancy.

Is it just a coincidence that (1) McAllister, who likely signed
a contract in early April to become Palin's PR secretary, worked at KTUU, and
that (2) KTUU was the only news organization in town tipped off that baby Trig
was at the hospital just waiting to be videotaped? I don't think so. In fact,
the odds seem excellent that McAllister, fully aware of the unfolding hoax, directed the activities of the KTUU
news crew. And who was in that news crew? Lori Tipton was the reporter,
and I would not be surprised if Carpenter was the cameraman, since he already
must have known some of the details about the hoax.

What do we know about Lori Tipton? Andrew Sullivan wrote a
few years back that he spoke to a journalist anonymously who said she walked
into Palin’s room at the hospital that day and saw Palin in bed; I always
assumed that was Tipton, since no other journalist seems to have been there
that day. And I always wondered about the truthfulness of that comment, since no
one outside Palin's family and Levi (a compromised source), has claimed to have
seen Palin in bed at Mat-Su (or at least that is my memory – correct me
if I am wrong).

Still, in fairness to Tipton, let me stress that this is just a
hypothesis. But let’s assume that Sarah Palin never got a maternity suite at
Mat-Su. Let’s also assume that Bill McAllister directed the KTUU news team
to go to the Mat-Su facility, and further that he either let them know about the hoax or at least placed strict limits
on the questions they could ask the Heaths.

So, for example, maybe he told Tipton not to ask why, if Trig was four weeks premature, he wasn't in an incubator or at a hospital with a neonatal intensive care
unit. There would have been no good answers to such questions.

Since there is no compelling evidence to the contrary, I am
inclined to think Sarah Palin was never there that weekend – or if she was, she had not officially checked into a room. If I am right about
that, then a key question becomes: How is it that the Heaths came to be in a
maternity suite holding Trig that day? Well, they could have just walked in and
found an empty suite, and invited the news crew in. After all, Sally
Heath, like Sarah, was a former member of the hospital's board, and maybe
she had the clout to do something like that.

But that seems like it would have been too risky – what if an
employee who did not know Sally asked what they were doing? What seems more
likely, if Sarah Palin did not actually get a room, is that an insider at
Mat-Su made arrangements for the Heaths to temporarily be given access to an
empty maternity suite, and later to have the news crew taken to that suite. If
that is what happened, it would explain why Sarah Palin absolutely had to get
back to her hometown the night of April 17 – no other hospital would let itself
be used that way.

Again, the key point isn't whether Sarah Palin was there or not there – rather, whether she truly checked into a room or not. If she got a room, there would have been bills, plus records of various sorts, etc. Thus, not getting a room
would have been very attractive both because it would be cheaper and would eliminate paperwork that could prove troublesome.

A commenter below writes that Frank
Bailey said in his book that he saw Palin at the hospital. Was she in
bed? If so, that would imply she had checked in. Or was she just sitting or standing somewhere? In that case, maybe she was "trespassing" in a room, but with the knowledge and tacit permission of a Mat-Su insider. Of course,
Bailey could have lied. He strikes me as less than trustworthy insofar as Babygate is concerned.

15 comments:

...just thinking out loud here... I do believe it is possible that SP was never at Mat-su Hospital during the relevant time period. I do agree that she had to be able to use Mat-su to carry out the ruse. That is why she had to schlep all the way back to the Wasilla area.

But, only one or two key people at the hospital needed to be on board to allow the charade with the Heaths and the news crew to happen. So I doubt it was a "hospital" the let itself "be used." I think it was one or two hospital insiders who were close to the Heath- Palin nexus.

@Brad. I recall when I read the book thinking that Bailey was trying to say, "Trig isn't Bristol's." He said he saw Bristol on the 18th and she had not just given birth. Of course, no one birthed Trig in April, so Bailey proves nothing to us (except provide the missing link ear picture).

Bailey and Levi both seem compelled to maintain a certain fiction while introducing various inconsistencies elsewhere. It's clear Sarah has some control over Levi, perhaps tied to Tripp, but I'm not sure why Bailey couldn't come clean.

I don't trust Bailey on that. He goes into great detail about what they did to counter rumors that Palin wasn't the mother of Trig, and notes she could have ended speculation with a birth certificate. I don't think he is truly so stupid that he could not draw the obvious inference: that the birth certificate would show the wrong mother.

So I don't necessarily think Bailey told the truth there. But I have added another graph to my post re Bailey.

I never trusted Bailey, and I don't believe his alleged regrets and spiritual renewal stuff, either. He wrote a whole book to show what he was willing to do for Palin, including lying and taking the blame for her behavior, and it all sounds like all she'd have to do is call him and he'd be right back doing the same thing. He said he saw Sarah at the hospital, and Bristol, and that Bristol hadn't given birth that day, but he didn't say that Sarah had. No: that whole section of Bailey's book is written in such a way that when the truth comes out, he can make it work for either side of the issue.

Supposedly Carl Gatto was in the room to get the eyeglass bill signed, which was the only bill for that entire legislative session her administration could take credit for. What I don't understand is why nobody filed a complaint against her for dereliction of duty. In case you weren't aware of this Brad, Juneau had it's biggest snowstorm in 100 years during that time, causing most of our capital city to lose power. Legislators were frantically trying to get in touch with Sarah to declare Juneau a disaster area and get emergency relief but she would not respond to anyone. Supposedly it was her BFF Gatto that informed her in person about the crisis which she had ducked and ignored for 2 days.

I guess that was her little payback to the good people of Juneau for wearing all those "Where's Sarah" pins and bumper stickers that could be seen on cars all over town during the legislative session in which she only managed to produce the "eyeglass" bill, because she couldn't be bothered to show up and do any real work even way back then

OMG Barb! On a hunch, I googled Gatto and Valley Hospital Board – he was/is a member of the board that oversees Mat-Su medical center.. He was perhaps was the Mat-Su insider that paved the way for Palin to get access to an unoccupied room. HE IS ALSO A MEMBER OF HER CHURCH!!!

I've always figured that Gatto was heavily involved with this situation, as is Linda Menard who was a board member at the time too. Bristol and Carl's son Gabe were an item in the valley long before Levi came onto the scene

KOA: That response of his really encapsulates their strategy from the beginning. They could not really fake the birth very convincingly, but they knew it would be difficult for anyone to prove that a birth didn't happen, especially with HIPAA keeping the true story from getting out.